Honor Julia Child with This Coq Au Vin Recipe

Julia Child’s 100th birthday is coming up on August 15th and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate and honor such an inspirational woman than cooking a meal that was near and dear to her heart.

Coq au vin.

Basically, coq au vin just translates to “rooster with wine”, but we tend think of it, rather, as chicken slowly simmered in a rich red wine sauce, with tiny crumbles of bacon throughout. If you’ve never attempted coq au vin before, now’s your chance. It’s really not terribly time consuming compared to other traditional French dishes, and can be made in about an hour.

The alcohol cooks off in this dish, but the flavor of the wine is imparted, along with smoky bacon, garlic, onion and rosemary throughout the cooking process. Some recipes use pearl onions in their coq au vin, but I prefer just mushrooms. I also like to serve this with a baked potato and a big green salad! Plus more wine for drinking, of course.

Happy Birthday Julia!

Coq Au Vin

Our food blogger, Jenna Weber, puts her spin on Julia Child's coq au vin recipe. She shares some tips for making this dish in a full post on the Fresh Tastes blog.

Ingredients

4 slices thick cut bacon

3 lbs chicken breasts and legs, skin on (two breasts and two drumsticks)

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 tsp minced garlic

2 bay leaves

1 sprig fresh rosemary, minced

2 cups red wine

2 cups chicken broth

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp flour

10 oz sliced mushrooms

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt (or, to taste)

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Fry the bacon over medium heat in a dutch oven or large heavy-bottomed pot. After it’s fried, remove the bacon and place on paper towels to drain. Once cool, chop bacon and set aside. Keep the bacon grease in the pot.

Turn heat to high and place chicken, skin-side down in the pot. Sear chicken until golden brown on both sides, about eight minutes. Then, add the onions, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary. Continue sautéing until the onions begin to soften, about six minutes.

Add the chicken broth and red wine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, carefully remove the chicken from the pot and place in an oven-safe dish. Keep chicken warm in the oven while you work on the sauce.

Stir the flour and butter (butter should melt instantly in the pot) into the red wine sauce. Bring back up to a boil and stir constantly----sauce should be begin to thicken. Add mushrooms, chopped bacon, salt and pepper and continue cooking for 10-12 minutes. Keep in mind that the sauce will also thicken up a bit when it cools.

Place chicken back in sauce and serve with roasted potatoes, noodles or a big green salad.

Jenna Weber is half of the Fresh Tastes blog team. She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in 2008 and, since then, has worked as a pastry chef, bread baker and freelance food editor. Currently, Jenna blogs full-time on EatLiveRun.com where her delicious daily recipes and quirky culinary musings appeal to thousands. She lives in Northern California and, when not in the kitchen, can usually be found on her yoga mat.

I have heard this version as well -- That musicians finishing at 3-4am went to all night diners as menus were changing and wanted something hearty and dinner like such as Fried Chicken and Something light and sweet - i.e. waffles and syrup and such the marriage was made --- Now me -- I like chicken and waffles with sausage gravy!

This is a fantastic bake - thank you Beca! We have done roughly 10 bakes from recipes from this show and this was the best. We followed everything almost exactly to recipe and it tastes great. A few notes- don't boil the syrup too long - we did so the first time through, then found that it sets really quickly in the pan and will even set before being ab

One of the greatest salads of all time. I prefer the classic buttery croutons on top rather than a croissant on the bottom. But THEE most decadent version was served to me years ago at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, CA. The waiter grated fresh, black truffles generously over the top just before bringing it to the table. Oh, the aroma wafting from that plate

It is the same thing as Jello. In England it comes in a thick jelly bar that you melt in hot water. In the US it is powder but its the same thing. Just use 1/3 the water because you need it to be really firm.

The quantities are too small in this recipe. I doubled the sponge recipe and got only 16 jaffa cakes using one tablespoon of batter for each one. You can use a muffin tin. Just put one tablespoon of the batter in a buttered muffin tin. Each Jaffa cake is tiny to the American eye but that is what they are supposed to be like. Also Americans can use regular Or